“We are shifting eight vessels out of our present fleet of 37 vessels to start the process with an aim of providing quality shipmanagement service to the clients based in Norway and other European countries who would want their service provider to be speaking the same language, available in the same time zone and at their beck and call whenever required. With limited number of such service providers in the region, the prospect of growth in terms of satisfied customers seems very high while competing in the number game has never been our forte,” Gupta told Splash.

Founded in Singapore in 2012, UMMS now manages 37 ships and Gupta told Splash last year he envisages an ideal fleet size going forward of between 50 and 60 vessels.

Grant spent nine years at Informa Group based in London, Sydney, Hong Kong and Singapore. He gained strong management experience in publishing, conferences and awards schemes in the shipping and legal areas, working on a number of titles including Lloyd's List. In 2009 Grant joined Seatrade responsible for the commercial development of Seatrade’s Asia products. In 2012, with Sam Chambers, he co-founded Asia Shipping Media.